a ‘, 
Vol. I., No. 8, MARCH, 1883]. 
NOTES ON THE SALMON DISEASE IN THE TWEED 
ANDO OTHERY RIVERS, ANDJTS REMEDY. 
BY W. ARTHUR, CE. 
> 
It may seem bold for a resident at the antipodes to express 
any opinion on the disease which has become epidemic among 
the salmon of the border rivers of England and Scotland ; and 
yet an outsider has always the advantage of being free from, and 
unbiassed by, local ideas or preconceptions, and so is better able 
to weigh fairly the evidence already recorded on the subject. In 
this spirit I have tried to arrange my notes under three heads or 
divisions, which are these :—(1.) Zhe disease itself; (2.) A sum- 
mary of the occurrence of the disease; and (3.) The proposed 
remedy or remedies. 
1. The disease ttself—The disease appears to be due to a 
fungus, known to science as Saproleguia ferax. This fungus is 
figured in the Royal Commissioners’ report on the disease pub- 
lished in 1880, where the three stages of protoplasm, zoospores, 
and resting spores are shewn. It is present seemingly in all 
fresh waters, but has not been discovered positively in the waters 
of the ocean, and probably will not. Where it finds the requi- 
site conditions for germination and growth itssubsequent develop- 
ment appears to be one of extraordinary rapidity. These condi- 
tions are present when the spores floating through the water find 
and rest on a dead animal, or the soft parts of a fish’s body, as 
the head and fins. Hence these germs are known as the “ rest- 
ing spores ;” they are possessed of greater vitality than the zoo- 
spores, and are the principal reproducers of the species. The 
common aspect of the fungus is dirty-white and fluffy, and ofa 
thread-like structure. Although the Commissioners on the 
disease collected a large amount of evidence from residents on 
the banks of rivers affected, supplemented by the scientific re- 
ports of Professor Rolleston, Erasmus Wilson, F.R.S., Dr. Cooke, 
C. L. Jackson, A. B. Stirling, &c., yet they suggested that more 
information is still required in order to determine the natural 
history of this fungus precisely—and they might have added, to 
determine the chemical condition of affected and non-affected 
waters. Impressed with the necessity of further discovery, Pro- 
fessor Huxley has, since the issue of above report, begun a series 
of independent experiments on the salmon disease—the first re- 
sults of which are now public.* The principal things disclosed 
by Professor Huxley are that the resting-spores, though incon- 
ceivably prolific, are yet very short-lived, and the suggestion that 
although the return of the salmon to salt-water removes the 
pe 
5 * See Nature for March, 1882, 
